red sun rises
by ChocolateWonder
Summary: Who knew that getting drunk and collapsing outside your neighbor's apartment could end up in something so wonderful? Jily Muggle College!AU, day 7 of Jily collection.


**Jilytober Event-** Meet Ugly: Character A's first impression of Character B is "that guy who came up to his apartment at 2am on a school night drunk and naked."

 **Writing Club |Showtime|-** Bravi!: (situation) Going to a theater

 **Writing Club |AU of the Week|:** Roommate!AU **(kinda?)**

 **Around the World in 31 Days-** Solomon Islands: (word) Serendipity

 **Word Count: 3559**

 **I got carried away, I swear.**

* * *

Lily's intelligent eyes scanned the paper in front of her, proofreading her essay for errors. It was due on Friday, a couple days from now, but Lily was getting it done before so she wouldn't be one of those college students panicking and scrambling to do it the night before. No, Lily was more responsible, and that was why she was the top student in almost every class and the teacher's favorite.

Loud voices and heavy, uneven footsteps entered her hall and Lily groaned, recognizing her next door neighbor and his best mate's slurred voices. He was giggling drunkenly and shouting indistinguishable words and his best mate was laughing raucously, apparently understanding his incoherent sentences.

Lily glanced at her watch. It was two in the morning—had she really been working that long? No wonder she was feeling drowsy.

Lily stood, pushed her chair back, and stormed to her door, wrenching it open.

Didn't those two fools know to be quiet? Granted, they were intoxicated, but it was a school night and they shouldn't be out clubbing in the first place.

They were going to regret it in the morning when they had nasty hangovers and had to attend classes.

Lily poked her head out the door and gasped. James, her neighbor, and his best mate, Sirius were there, all right—but they were _naked_. As in, no clothes whatsoever.

Her cheeks reddening and her heart thumping erratically, she retracted her head and slammed the door, shuddering. She had seen more of them that she wanted to see.

Lily wasn't the type to go out partying on school nights, but this definitely took the cake.

A deafening knock sounded on her door, startling her. Shielding her eyes, she pulled open the door.

Sure enough, it was James, telling by the tan, sinewy legs. His best mate's paler legs were beside him, too close to James's. Lily inevitably felt her cheeks flaming. She gulped.

"'ook who it is," James slurred. "Lil' Evan. Sunshi' Evan."

Lily stifled a giggle. James was flattering even when drunk.

"James," Lily sighed, knowing that somewhere his brain was registering her words. "It's late, and you've got the wrong apartment."

"See, Jamie, she's a uptigh' girl. Come off it, Evan."

Lily clicked her teeth together. "I told you, this isn't your apartment. Walk three steps to the right and that's yours."

Oh, why had she decided to live here?

"Ok'," giggled Sirius. "Whatev' gets your knickers out of a twis'."

He and James shuffled to the right, dramatically counting their steps.

"One," declared James. "Two, four—wait, that can' be righ'.

It took them five minutes to count to three and find their apartment, Lily gnashing her teeth together with frustration and her cheeks flushing.

They wasted five more minutes stupidly patting each other down—or Lily assumed, by James squeaking, "Siri', that tickles!"

Her blood was rising to an inhuman temperature by this statement.

It was Sirius who gave up first. "Jamie, let' stay outside. Or maybe Evan will take us in—"

Lily shut that down immediately. No way on Earth was she going to let them into her apartment, despite being their neighbor.

"No bloody way, just spend the night outside your apartment. Once you're sober, you can go inside. Until then, shut your mouths and don't say a word."

"Okay," Sirius giggled, sitting down unsteadily. "Evan—"

"Hush," she rebutted.

Honestly, it was like babysitting five-year-olds.

Lily had almost forgotten that they were naked, but as she uncovered her eyes she yelped and promptly closed her eyes.

"How about I go get some clothes for you," she muttered, "so that way, you won't be embarrassed or attacked by a hormonal teenage girl and I won't be held accountable."

"Goo' idea, Evan," agreed James.

"Right," she muttered mutinously. She couldn't recall if she had any clothes for men, because she wasn't some girl who regularly had guys over.

A sudden idea struck her. Maybe her roommate, Remus, had some; he was a man. His selection of clothes was drab, but it was better than nothing.

Lily darted back into her apartment, opened her eyes, and tiptoed into her roommate's bedroom.

Remus was sound asleep, but his closet was right next to the door. Lily quickly slipped inside, grabbed a few articles of clothing: sweaters, jeans, and—she chuckled at this—boxers.

Remus was going to kill her in the morning, but she really had no choice.

"Here," Lily said, blindly thrusting the clothes at the pair without looking at them as she exited her apartment. "Please, for heavens' sake and mine, put these on."

There was some cacophonous snickering. "Have a boy, Evan?"

"Yes, my roommate; you know that," Lily retorted. "Now, wear those so I can properly look at you."

She heard them shifting as they clumsily pulled on the clothes. There were a few sniggers, but otherwise they remained quiet. Perhaps Lily's chastisement had digested in their sluggish brains.

"Now, sit down and shut up," she ordered, unable to believe that she had to stoop this low in order to force them to be quiet and preserve her reputation. Or what was left of it after tonight. "Let's play a game. Whoever goes the longest without talking gets a prize."

Sliding her hand from her face, she saw Sirius gazing at her, a childlike expression on his face. "What' the prize?"

She steeled herself. "Whoever wins gets to—look down my shirt."

James whistled, looking like a kid in a candy store. Lily was disgusted with herself, but it's not like they would remember this come morning.

"I wanna win!" piped up Sirius. "You're gonna lose, Jamie."

"No way! You're gonna go down, Siri," James argued. "I like Lils—she's pretty and hot and—"

Lily was gradually turning red with James's praise. "Shut up," she hissed, wishing she could swap places with Remus so he could deal with these two nutcases. As much as she liked them, she didn't have the energy at the moment to take care of them.

"Fine." Sirius mimed zipping his lips shut and James mimicked him.

"I'm going to go inside," Lily announced, "but don't think I can't hear you, so no cheating!"

That was a lie, but she wasn't about to tell them that. She needed sleep.

Effectively silenced, they both nodded.

"Good, now be good little boys," cooed Lily, praying silently for them to fall asleep and reveling in her success.

They obliged, adopting innocent expressions. Lily smiled.

"Dorks," she murmured fondly, especially gazing at James's handsome face , retreating into her apartment. "Foolish dorks."

…oOo…

Lily rubbed her eyes, yawning as she stretched out on her bed. Her limbs made a _cracking_ sound.

Someone knocked on her door and she jumped. Remus entered, looking enraged.

"Lily," he said, his voice deadly calm, "James and Sirius are standing outside in _my clothes_ and asking for you. Do you happen to know anything about this?"

Lily's eyes flew open and widened comically. "Bollocks," she cursed, sprinting out of her room.

"Ask them to return my clothes, please! James is wearing my Thursday sweater!" Remus called after her.

Lily did not hear him, instead arriving at the door and yanking at the handle. The door flew open, almost smacking her in the face.

"Hey," she greeted breathlessly, her eyes roving between the two sheepish teenage boys.

James's eyes went straight to her chest and Lily followed his eyes, realizing with mortification that she was dressed in skimpy pyjamas. She squeaked, covering her chest with her arms.

James's eyes returned to hers and he smiled apologetically, making Lily's heart to flutter. "Hey, Lily."

Sirius was staring at his feet, not meeting her eyes. She was perfectly content with gazing at James and started when he spoke.

"We woke up this morning outside your apartment with pounding headaches and wearing Remus's hideous sweaters. We were wondering if you knew anything about that."

"Oh, right," muttered Lily, wanting to forget about _that_ encounter as her cheeks flooded with heat. "About that…you two stumbled up here at two in the morning, completely wasted and… _naked_."

Sirius choked and James's eyes doubled in size.

"N—Naked?" James stammered.

Lily nodded affirmatively. "Yup. You almost gave me a heart attack. I had to calm you down and provide you with clothes to wear so you wouldn't be jumped."

"Oh." James was speechless. "Well, er, sorry about that."

"It's okay, though you owe me one," Lily chuckled, smirking. "Don't worry, I reckon you'll have plenty of opportunities to make it up to me."

"We will," James replied sincerely. "Thanks for that."

"You're welcome," returned Lily, "but don't expect me to bail you out next time. It was a school night—crud, I just realized class starts in an hour. Here's your apartment key; the landlady gave me a spare one for situations like last night's. Gotta go, bye!"

And she left James standing there with a dopey smile threatening to burst.

She was so adorable.

…oOo…

Lily trudged into the classroom where her Advanced Chemistry class was held. Professor Slughorn, a pudgy—she was being nice, but that was an understatement—man with graying hair and a cheerful personality was greeting students at the door with ebullience.

"Good morning, Miss Evans!" he boomed jovially to the redheaded girl, patting her on the shoulder. His hand encompassed her entire shoulder.

"Good morning, sir," said Lily respectfully.

She found Alice and Mary chatting away at their usual table. As Lily approached, Mary exclaimed, "I know! He _totally_ likes her."

"Who does who like?" Lily asked curiously.

Mary immediately snapped her mouth shut and Alice said mysteriously, "Now wouldn't you like to know?"

Lily was puzzled. "What?"

"Don't mind her," Mary said briskly, recovering. "How are you, Lily?"

"Sleepy," said Lily, purposefully leaving it at that.

Luckily, her friends bought it. "Same here," Mary moaned. "I have a terrible headache from last night from clubbing. What were you up to?"

Lily smirked cheekily. "I finished my essay for Literature last night. I won't be cramming tonight."

The pair glared at her. "Goody two-shoes," muttered Alice, but it was affectionate.

Lily shrugged. "I figured I might as well."

Just then, James entered the room. Lily's cheeks instantly exploded with heat.

His hair was casually disheveled, he had abandoned Remus's clothing in favor of a sweatshirt with their school's emblem emblazoned on the front. His eyes were brighter than before and he had a grimace on his face, probably from a hangover.

Their eyes met and his grimace turned into a lopsided grin. She smiled sympathetically and returned back to her friends, who were openly goggling at her.

" _What was that?"_ Mary, who was the first to regain her voice, demanded, her voice dripping with interest for potential gossip.

Lily smiled simply. "We had a run-in the other day and he was…not himself, so I helped him."

That did not satisfy Mary's curiosity. "And?"

"And nothing," Lily answered.

Mary bristled, wanting to grill Lily and suck all of the information out of her, but thankfully Alice intervened.

"Mary, she doesn't want to talk about it right now," Alice placated. "She'll open up later, but don't bug her until she's ready."

Lily shot her a grateful look. Mary unhappily let the matter rest, but she would jump on Lily the moment she was ready.

The bell rang and the last few students dashed into class, quickly sitting down as Slughorn bounced into the room, his belly moving with him.

"Good morning, class," he declared and received a rather sullen "Good morning" from the room.

Slughorn didn't seem disheartened by this lack of response. "Today, we will going over some old material—aqueous solutions."

He paused for a reaction. None came. Lily saw James whisper something to Sirius.

"I have assigned you lab partners for this lesson. You will be with these partners for the remainder of this semester, then I will assign you new ones."

This provoked a vehement response from the class. Lily glanced around and her eyes landed on a sallow-skinned, oily-haired boy who was sitting with his sexist friends. They were the unsavory type and preferred to stick to themselves, which was perfectly fine with everyone else.

Lily dreaded being paired with any one of them, more so that greasy-haired boy.

Slughorn instructed one unfortunate student sitting close to him to hand out the packets containing the instructions to performing the experiment.

"You partners are as follows. Mary MacDonald, Julia Hodges, you are sitting at the table in the front left side."

Mary shrugged; Julia was a decent girl. She moved to sit next to the girl.

"Next pair: Sirius Black and Frank Longbottom. You will be at the same table."

The pair nodded genially to each other and sat down across from Mary and Julia., Sirius eyeing Mary with interest.

"The next table is Alice Prewitt and Remus Lupin, and James Potter and—"

Lily held her breath.

"—Lily Evans."

Lily released the breath she had been holding. She moved to the table, catching James's eye and grinning. She sat next to James.

The chairs were uncomfortably close together, so Lily scooted hers a few centimeters to the right, towards the aisle.

As Slughorn announced the other groups James whispered to Lily, "We got lucky, huh?"

"It's serendipitous," she replied happily, trying to calm her heartbeat from being in such close proximity to him.

"Well, I'm certainly happy. I don't understand anything Slughorn teaches us, so I got lucky he put me with the smartest girl in the school."

Lily blushed; his compliments weren't helping her heart slow down. "T-Thank you," she murmured abashedly.

James waved it away carelessly. "It's not a problem; everyone knows you are. It's like knowing who our Prime Minister is; it's common knowledge."

Lily might've just eaten a chili pepper, because her face was on fire. Thankfully, Slughorn allowed them to start retrieving the supplies and Lily volunteered, just to get away from James.

As she grabbed a dropper, Lily felt a presence behind her. She whirled around and there was the greasy-haired boy.

"Get out of my way, Snape," she hissed coldly.

"Lily, wait—"

"No, Snape. How many times have I told you I can't change what gender I was born with? You had no right to call me a weakling. Just move before you cause a scene."

He cast his sorrowful eyes towards his feet. "If you ever reconsider, you know where to find me. I'll be waiting."

"Well then, I guess you'll be waiting forever," Lily snarled, having reached her patience limit. She pushed past Snape and walked over to James, who had watched the scene through narrowed eyes.

"Was that slimy git harassing you?" he asked, his eyes glittering dangerously.

"He tried to, but I shut him down," she said proudly. "There's no need to worry; I handled it."

"Okay," he replied, a hint of skepticism in his voice, but letting the subject drop.

…oOo...

"Excellent, Miss Evans and Mr Potter!" declared Slughorn buoyantly. "Full marks for both of you. And since I am feeling particularly giving today, I'll let you leave early!"

"Thank you, Professor," said James courteously. "We'll be off then."

He slung his bag over his shoulder, Lily mirroring him, and nodded at the teacher. He led the way out, Lily on his heels.

He shortened his stride the moment they exited the classroom, so he fell right next to the redhead. She smiled gratefully.

"Where are you headed next?" he asked conversationally.

Lily glanced at her schedule. "Botany, in the greenhouses."

James sighed ruefully. "That's a shame. I have Trigonometry next and then Botany."

"Well, the greenhouses are pretty far, so I'd better get going."

She started turning left when James caught her wrist.

James's hand was warm against her bare skin and sent a trill of electricity surging through her. "Wait, I wanted to ask you something."

He took a deep breath and looked into her eyes, his hazel eyes solemn and hopeful. Lily's heart did a backflip.

"I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to go watch a movie with me this weekend," he said warmly. "Not as a date, but as repayment for your generosity towards taking care of us when we were vulnerable. It's nothing romantic; just one person returning a favor to another. We'll be alone. Is that fine?"

She debated in her head whether she wanted to go with him. She didn't have any plans this weekend, since Alice was going on a weekend trip with her boyfriend and Mary was meeting with family.

And he was pretty cute with those puppy-dog eyes, if she did say herself. She didn't want to admit it, but she'd secretly fallen for him senior year of highschool.

Yes, she was just admitting this now, but it hadn't been necessary until this very moment.

"Sure!" she agreed enthusiastically. "Pick me up at ten on Saturday?"

"That's perfect. Can't wait!" He grinned brilliantly at her and strode off in the opposite direction.

Lily absently touched her cheek, not realizing she had neglected to ask them—him— to return Remus's clothes.

"Lily!" A new voice reached her ears. "Alice and I finished early, so Slughorn let us go—"

Remus walked up behind her. Upon seeing Lily standing in the corridor looking lost, he softened. "What happened?"

"He asked me to the movies," she whispered disbelievingly.

"Who did?"

"James," she confirmed. "James Potter, the guy who is our neighbor, who showed up at our door drunk without any clothes. He asked me out."

"And are you going?"

"Of course I am. It would be rude if I refused. Besides, he's trying to compensate for last night."

"Well, that's certainly _kind_ of him. Are you sure he asked you out?"

"Well, he mentioned that he didn't mean it as a date, but rather as an outing with a friend to pay them back for a favor."

"When's—"

"Saturday. I figured since I don't have anything this weekend, I might as well go with him."

Remus smiled. "Do you like him?"

"Oh, he's an okay person, I mean I don't like him romantically, nor am I interested in being in a relationship with him, he's just a friend, even though I really fancy him—"

She clapped a hand over her mouth as the confession spilled out of her mouth. Remus rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"It's okay, Lily, I know. It's plainly obvious for anyone to notice."

"Has he noticed?" she asked faintly.

"See, that's the complication. He doesn't know you like him; he's that oblivious, but he also really fancies you."

"He—" Lily was having trouble stringing together a coherent sentence as she absorbed this information.

She was sure she had died and gone to heaven.

Remus nodded. "He fell for you when you originally met after that one night; he was impressed by your kindness. Every girl treats him well just for his money, shags him, and then ditches him. You, however, gave him the impression that you didn't care about his money or his looks, but who he was as a person."

"I do," she replied empathetically. Her hands were dangling limply at her side. "And now he asked me—wow, he's _good_."

"I know."

"But how did you know—?"

"James and I are actually close; his mother starting inviting us over for tea at his house and that's how we became good friends. And he—they—have been supportive despite me having an—ailment."

Lily nodded understandingly. Remus had been diagnosed with a rare disease, something she had never heard of before or could spell **(and neither can the author).**

Remus smiled softly. "He's a good person, Lily, and I can guarantee the only time he'll break your heart is when he dies. He's an amazing man and you and him are meant to be."

Lily smiled and embraced her friend fondly. "Thank you, Remus. I really had no qualms about him, but now you just bolstered my feelings for him."

"Anytime." He returned the hug.

"And if he does break my heart, you have my permission to break his face," she joked. Remus laughed.

"Not if you beat me to it."

This made Lily laugh harder.

…oOo…

Their "outing" went smoothly. James showed up at her doorstep on time (considering he lived next door) and Lily praised his punctuality.

"Nice," she said appreciatively, examining his plaid shirt and jeans.

They went to the cinema, where the recent "Star Wars" movie was playing. Turned out, James was a huge fan of the series.

"I'm surprised a jock like you enjoys nerdy movies like these," Lily had teased him and he'd playfully shoved her shoulder.

"There's nothing wrong with that," he'd said defensively.

He bought her buttered popcorn and a large soda. He, however, only purchased a small soda for himself. When Lily insisted that they share her popcorn, he declined, saying it was all for her and he had every right to spoil her.

While Lily was flattered by his actions, she was also slightly mystified. She didn't comment, instead relishing her food.

When they exited the theater, he escorted her to her apartment like a gentleman.

And that's where it happened.

That's where Lily boldly placed her hands on the sides of his face and planted a kiss on his lips, trying to express all of her feelings in one action.

That's when James, stunned, turned several shades of red. He allowed her to pull away before pulling her back into another one, this time longer and more heated.

As Lily's hands roamed over his body, her tongue exploring the crevices of his mouth, she couldn't believe that they had been brought together by alcohol.

It was funny how life had planned for them to meet.

Lily couldn't wait to see what her life had in store for her and James.


End file.
